Caught Between
by Genril
Summary: Who you love is not a choice.


**Caught Between**

* * *

><p>When it came to her first day at Beacon, Ruby thought she had made an enemy for life when bumping into Weiss Schnee, heiress of a dust company she admittedly had heard of.<p>

Fast forward a couple of months and moments and Weiss had warmed to Ruby, who was no longer missing her friends at Signal as much, and considered Weiss to be her closest friend. Minus Yang of course… and Blake.

As the youngest by two years, Ruby knew she was immature and full on at times. Yang and Blake tended to go off and do their own thing, whether alone or together during the times when Ruby grew restless.

Weiss was different though, because Weiss was her partner. She always calmed Ruby down, or on some rare occasions (if Ruby did well in class), Weiss embraced the boundless energy the younger girl possessed.

Which was why Ruby undoubtedly had feelings for her that, on a scale of theory class to Crescent Rose, Weiss hit the mark at Crescent Rose plus a side of milk and cookies.

One of the many subtle hints of Weiss's personality change came during their game for Ruby, when the heiress let out a false wail, 'I hate this game of emotions we play.'

'Stay strong, Weiss.' With the help of her semblance she dived onto the fair-haired girl's lap, regardless of the threat of being shoved away. 'We'll make it this through together.'

Touching Weiss was a novelty in itself, but the moment Weiss tightened her grip on, the scythe-wielder almost lost it.

'Shut up! Don't touch me!' Weiss continued to weep, sounding more legit by the second.

They held the position long enough for heartbeats to be confused; was Ruby's heart beating twofold, or was a part of it Weiss? Ruby wasn't afforded the opportunity of finding out, because Yang quickly passed a turn to Blake.

Both eager to finish the game, Ruby slid out of Weiss's arms, but not without spying on what cards the heiress had.

Blake was out of it completely, looking at the cards as if they were written upside down, backwards, whilst in another language completely. She wasn't even hiding her disinterest, looking everywhere but the table.

Vale was saved from total annihilation under Blake's care, by an eager looking Jaune. Ruby had a feeling he would be quite good at the game, because he hit the radar on all other nerdy things many times before.

There was no enjoying the rest of their game, not with the constant interruptions. Yes, they were a cool team made up of four diverse personalities and looks, so it was little wonder that people wanted to approach, but for once it wasn't Yang in the limelight.

Weiss always shot Jaune down. His interest with Weiss contrasted greatly against her disinterest in him, and Ruby did feel sorry for him in ways and not in others. When Blake pointed out it was bordering on harassment, it gave Ruby a whole new perspective on the heiress and her coldness.

It wasn't long after meeting Sun and his teammate that Team RWBY departed the library, and it was safe to say Ruby was relieved to be back in her dorm, away from the clutches of flirtatious boys. Jaune's constant hounding was bad enough; although his attempts were usually so pitiful it was funny. Once Weiss got over her initial irritation, she usually offered some sarcastic remark, which meant the beginning of many Jaune-centric jokes.

There was no mistaking the missed heartbeat that Ruby experienced when Neptune started having a go, but thankfully Weiss did nothing more than ask courteous questions towards him.

_Because she loves me~!_

This fact had nothing to do with Ruby falling forward across the middle of Weiss's bed, as opposed to her own; it was just easier to get to.

'Yours is literally just there, you know,' Weiss decided to point out somewhere behind Ruby.

'Don't get too comfy sis, she's probably gonna impale you.'

_Depends what with._

Pressing her face into the covers, Ruby pretended not to hear either girl talking. Disguising her intake of Weiss's scent as a sigh, Ruby replied, 'I don't care.'

Ruby was about to do it again, when the mattress depressed. 'Well, if you won't move I'll just have to lie on you then.'

'Fine,' mumbled Ruby. She was enjoying it anyway.

'Fine,' Weiss reiterated. 'Hope you're comfortable, because I'm not moving.'

'Good, 'cause I am!'

Was this flirting? It felt like flirting. Not that she had any experience with it.

There was no way to check if Weiss was smirking, without twisting her head one-eighty like an owl, but Ruby hoped she was.

Letting the other girl's warmth permeate her back, Ruby was certain she'd fall asleep soon.

There was an unusual silence across the room, one that could make her forget that even Yang and Blake were in the dorm too.

'Now!' Yang suddenly called out, and the weight on Ruby's back doubled, as Weiss sat on her.

Weiss was the anchor. This became clear when Yang yanked on Ruby's right boot, much to Ruby's horror, and cold air filled the space her footwear once had.

'My baby sister here is one of the most ticklish people alive,' Yang cackled.

Eyes wide, the scythe-wielder tried to thrash and flail, but only her left leg would budge.

'Is she now?' Weiss meant to say under her breath, but Ruby just caught the words.

Ruby squealed as Yang tickled her foot incessantly. Ruby nearly lost all breath when Weiss began to play with the skin under her ear. She couldn't take it.

Her cries of laughter became short yelps. 'Stop! I give up!' She was hot, and out of breath and…

…had just kicked Yang in the face.

With a thud, Yang landed between the two bunk beds, and even Weiss stopped.

'Did you know that the laughter from tickling is actually a form of panic?' Blake said, presumably from the comfort of her bottom bunk.

'And pain,' Yang added. 'You got me good that time. No blood though.'

Yang was too tough to bleed. Ruby rolled onto her back and star-fished what she could of the bed she was on.

She could not stop panting. 'I am not responsible for any injuries caused by panic-inducing tickle sessions!'

'Relax sis, I'm going to get you when you least expect it.'

Out of nowhere Weiss prodded her in the side. 'Like that.'

'Eep!' Ruby cowered into her cloak, if only to hide surprised stares.

Normal Weiss made her blush and act her usual awkward self; a playful Weiss made Ruby want to leap into her arms and kiss the heiress right there and then.

As if the rest of her team were mind readers, Ruby quickly glanced at the others. No one looked as though they'd heard her thoughts. Phew.

Yang's scroll started to buzz from her pocket, springing the downed girl into action. The entire room watched and waited with intrigue, feeling their owns pockets for a message, to find it was only Yang who got one.

'Yes! The gear has arrived.' Yang punched the air. 'This dance is going to be epic.'

'What "gear" is this?' Weiss demanded. 'Have we discussed this?'

'Chillax, it's just the speakers, decks, and smoke machines.'

'We discussed having a live band, Yang…'

Closing her scroll, Yang didn't look pleased. 'Which I shot down, because that would be a massive bore, Weiss.'

Ah yes, here it was. Team Freezerburn and one of their little moments. Ruby's hand twitched as Weiss leaned forward, ready to act as a flesh wall just in case one of them went for each other. She hoped Blake had Gambol Shroud ready to wrap around Yang at a moment's notice.

'You need to run these things by me!'

'What? Like you're running the colour schemes by me?'

'The two of you are putting too much effort into the things that don't matter,' Blake spat, rising from her bunk, hands curling into right balls.

'I'll say,' Weiss said, tossing her ponytail behind her shoulder. 'Colour schemes and table accessories are much more important.'

'I chose the flowers,' Ruby grinned. Despite not wanting to be part of it at first, Ruby had been roped into being Weiss's second opinion for some things. She didn't dare admit, but the white roses were her idea of a secret message to Weiss. The name had cropped up during their battle formation talk, but alas, Ice Flower prevailed.

A part of her wondered if Weiss understood why she'd chosen the flowers. Surely the fair girl _knew_ the meaning. Ruby had no other way of telling Weiss other than outright.

'I'll be at the library.'

'Blake wait!'

The dorm room door was only just saved from slamming shut, as Yang chased Blake out of the room, leaving the first half of Team RWBY.

'Must have been something you said,' Weiss shrugged.

'H-hey! I barely said a thing!'

'For once,' Weiss smirked.

Ruby replied by giving her the finger. 'And don't say, "That wasn't ladylike" because I'm not ladylike in the slightest.'

'I wasn't anyway.'

'Good!' Ruby folded her arms, turning away slightly because although her next words have been said before, she had never meant it so much. 'You're all the lady one team needs.' From the corner of her eye, Ruby just caught a gaping mouth and flushed face. 'Blake isn't quite there because of those _Ninjas of Love _books. That first page was a real eye opener.'

One long and boring night had led Ruby and Weiss to sneak a peek at one of the books, and they hadn't spoke of it since.

'The bit with the two female ninjas and the katana sheath?'

'Yeah! Good job Myrtenaster doesn't have one, because I'd be picturing that scene forever. Wait, _does_ Myrtenaster have a sheath?'

Weiss's hand cupped Ruby's mouth so fast it appeared their semblances had switched. 'Stop now before you divulge some weird fantasy of yours.'

Ruby nodded, allowing Weiss to warily drop her hand before playfully shoving Ruby, trying to diffuse the weird situation they have going on.

Drawing out the last syllable as she tips effortlessly onto Weiss's pillow, Ruby cries, 'Timber!'

'You are such an idiot.' Thankfully the tone doesn't match the sentence.

'But I'm you're idiot.' As if lying on Weiss's bed wasn't off putting enough, said girl was prodding Ruby in her very tickling sides once more. 'Y'know, I bet you're more ticklish than I am.'

Ruby had been involved in many dangerous experiences during her very short life; the robbery at the Dust shop, and the bout with the Nevermore came to mind first and foremost. But there was nothing, _nothing _that could save her from the look Weiss was giving her. It was dark, challenging, teasing and… Ruby bit her lip - sexy.

'You wouldn't want to find out, Ruby,' she said, voice unexpectedly flirtatious.

And yet the words resounded in her ears as if spoken through a megaphone.

* * *

><p>Weiss greeted the morning with open arms, feeling more well rested than usual. The same couldn't be said for Blake. Her face looked drawn and pale, and she was staring at their bedroom door as if waiting for someone to burst through.<p>

Blake's unease about the White Fang wasn't unprecedented, but Weiss, Ruby, and Yang all agreed the previous night that sitting around and waiting for the law to do its job would drive everyone crazy.

Once Blake had settled and Ruby had returned with her appallingly bad board game, the girls had spent a good portion of their time agreeing and planning their new mission. They couldn't go on their first operation in their regular day attire, so naturally they'd agreed to go shopping.

Their fearless leader, however, didn't know their _entire_ day's plan.

Standing just off from her bunk, Weiss was the one chosen to execute this task, and if it hadn't been for Yang, Weiss may have cowered out for Blake's sake.

Using her own bed as a step wouldn't work on this occasion, as it would mean using Ruby's suspended bed as leverage. Instead, Weiss hoisted herself onto the low bookshelf, giving her enough height to lean into her teammate's sleeping space.

Ruby, she noted was lying dangerously close to the edge, but it was safe to say that the scythe wielder was still asleep, but not for long, which was a great shame because this was Ruby at her quietest point in the day.

Ruby's sleeping mask was lying unused around her neck, whilst her two-tone hair fell into her eyes and face. Ever so gently, Weiss tested how deep a sleep Ruby was in by stroking Ruby's hair until is settled more behind her ear.

'You gonna sing her a lullaby next?' Yang moaned, fighting to keep her voice low. 'Just do it!'

Weiss's hand jerked back from Ruby's face as if she'd been burnt. It wasn't like she enjoyed watching Ruby sleep; she was doing this to witness a better reaction!

Placing the whistle on her lips, Weiss braced herself, took a deep breath, and then blew.

The noise was loud and shrill as expected. However, Ruby's scream was louder and shriller than expected also.

'Ah!' Ruby instantly flailed, swiping just about everywhere in panic. But as planned, everyone was in a fit of giggles at their leader. 'I think I'm having a heart attack.' Ruby announced, clutching her heart. 'Weiss, please take over as team leader.'

'Hey, why does Weiss get to be the leader by proxy over your own damn sister?'

Yang demanded as she jumped down from bed, rattling her shared bunk bed with Blake.

'Well at least the team name would still sound like 'ruby' this way,' Blake explained.

Yang dismissed the reasoning faster than she would the idea of doing homework. 'Hell no! It'd sound like 'wubby'. Team Wubby. Laaaaaame.'

'Or,' Weiss smirked, 'it could be because I am the next best choice.'

'Dream on, Weissicle!'

The damn nicknames needed to stop. What was it about her name in particular that meant endless teasing?

'Jeez, Weiss.' Ruby vigorously rubbed at her ear. 'I think you deafened me.'

'Good, now _you_ know how it feels when you do it. Now come on, get ready, we have things to buy for the dance and out night mission.' Ruby didn't bother to hide her dismay, groaning into her pillow like she was one of the walking dead.

'But I've _got_ a dress.'

'Well unless you've shown Yang or Blake I don't believe you. And besides, you still need shoes.'

'I don't need lady stilts I've got my—'

'Ruby Rose you are not wearing your boots.' It was going to be a long day. 'I'm so glad we'll be doing this as a team today, because you are one step away from being skewered with Myrtenaster.'

'Allow me.' Yang didn't hesitate to push Ruby's bunk as high as possible, like a swing. She didn't let go, however, and Ruby rolled off her bed completely.

'Mutiny!' Ruby wailed. 'Absolute mutiny going on here.'

Always the spectator in team trolling shenanigans, Blake offered Ruby her hand. 'Ruby, since you always get ready the fastest why don't you sneak us some breakfast from the cafeteria, so we're not behind schedule?'

Although she made it sound like a suggestion, Blake had already taken Ruby's cloak, which had fallen from the bedpost, and threw it over Ruby's shoulders.

'It's a good idea actually,' Weiss nodded, and Ruby looked very fired up at the prospect of a "mission". It just went to show that you didn't have to say much to be persuasive, or get your intentions across.

'Yeah, _really _good.' Yang reiterated. 'Because you know you don't get hair looking as good as mine without putting some graft into it.'

Twisting her torso side to side, then her stretching her arms, Ruby was more than raring to go. 'Which is why I like to keep mine short, it's so much easier!'

'You'd end up scything it off anyway, you klutz.' Weiss was surprised the cloak was still in one piece, but then again she knew it was meaningful to Ruby.

Speaking of which, before Weiss could even think about letting Ruby go, there was the important matter of taking the eye mask off of Ruby's head. Not that Weiss had ever seen Ruby use it yet, it acted more like a head warmer if anything. She threw the thing aside, then smoothed down the wild strands that poked out at odd angles.

'Er, are you grooming me?'

As a matter of fact, she was. As cute as a mop of entangled hair was on Ruby, she couldn't just go out in public like that. 'Just in case people _do_ see you, you dolt. You have a bird's nest up here.'

'Must be a sister thing,' Blake chimed in, importantly out of Yang's earshot. Weiss had to agree, because Yang's hair had a mind of its own when it came to the girl sleeping. One day she expected the brawler to be found dead, choked by her own hair in her sleep.

'I'll be right back,' Ruby grinned once Weiss deemed her fit to leave the room.

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><p>Shopping for Beacon's dance proved harder than keeping Yang awake in lessons, getting Ruby to do her homework, and Blake away from her books combined.<p>

As the biggest tomboy of the group, Ruby was the hardest to keep in line, as her interests kept wandering to anything else but the task at hand. The only way to persuade Ruby to even try on a pair of heels was to adhere to her wish of wearing similar styled dresses.

'You're so strange,' Weiss had said, and in a second a quivering lip turned into a bright smile. Her reward for commenting wasn't Ruby latching onto her from behind, but the small nuzzle that followed after.

Now back at Beacon, the girls dumped a mountain of bags in the room, and each of them understandably wanted time alone.

Weiss took a leaf out of Blake's book and chose the library for her peace and serenity, a spare binder (that Ruby hadn't stolen) tucked under her arm. If anything, she could get a start on essay planning, and forget the _not_ unpleasant shivers she felt earlier.

Blake had followed Weiss out of their room, and yet the heiress found herself walking the corridors by herself. It was lonely, but she was not alone; there were many students milling around and some looked as though they still had lessons.

Finally reaching the library, Weiss sought out an empty table near the edge of the room. Blake often veered off to a secluded table in the corner; obviously so no one could read her smutty books. Weiss simply enjoyed the silence.

Slamming her binder down hard enough claimed ownership of the table, and the dull thud that followed would act as warning that she did not want to share the surface.

She pulled out the first sheet of paper colour coded a deep red meaning 'high priority', a plan for an essay due in just under a fortnight's time. For half of her team at least, two weeks equalled plenty of time and no reason to fret, but Weiss blamed her inner programming for wanting to get things done and dusted.

A flash of cyan coloured hair didn't escape her notice, a good three or four bookcases away. Weiss scolded herself for even looking up more than twice to see guess at what books he was selecting.

She frowned as she chewed the end of her pen. There was just something about him. He was no different in pickup lines; he and Jaune were on par in that respect. Neptune was certainly better looking and better dressed. Maybe that was the reason?

She froze when he looked down the aisle towards her briefly. If he'd spotted her, he didn't wave, and for that Weiss was thankful. The last thing she needed was company. He moved on eventually.

More time passed and she wasn't sure what time it even was, but her eyes felt dry and her neck stiff. Stretching her arms and legs out; she managed to kick something under her feet. At first Weiss dismissed it as a table leg, but when she crossed her legs and kicked something soft and foreign, she yelped.

And whatever she kicked yelped back, causing Weiss to bite her tongue in panic.

'Okay you got me.' It was Ruby's voice.

'What on Remnant?' Weiss instinctively placed her hands onto her lap, fearing Ruby could see up her dress. 'Ruby?'

Looking properly, Weiss could see an obvious amount of red cape spilling by her feet. How long had Ruby been there? Why was she even there to begin with?

Instead of crawling out from under the table like a normal person, Ruby rested her head on Weiss's knees. 'Whatcha up to?'

'Well excuse me, what am _I_ up to? What were you doing under the table?'

Ruby pouted. 'I got bored. I was going to give you a fright,' she said, patting the knee she wasn't resting on. 'But you caught me.'

'What a shame,' Weiss deadpanned. 'Now pull up a chair like a normal person, or leave me alone.'

Naturally, Ruby stuck around.

Strangely, Weiss wasn't disappointed.

* * *

><p><span><strong>AN:**** I tried so hard not to publish this without finishing it first, but I couldn't help myself. Enjoy! **


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